Would you go get free poplar?

A guy about 10 min down the road listed this on CL "Estimated about 25,000 lbs of poplar logs cutted in 16 inch wide. U will need to split for firewood" I have about one cord of oak split and my wife's co-worker has about 2 cords of oak in rounds for us to get after the ground freezes. Would you go get this to burn in the shoulder season or would you pass on it?


Scott

Yes . . . five key points.

1) It's free
2) There's a lot of it
3) It's already bucked
4) It's close to you
5) As you stated . . . it's great for burning in the shoulder season . . . save the good stuff for later on

If we are talking about tulip poplar I would take it. I know it's rep is that it is marginal for heat production and burn times, but it's generally super easy to process, It seasons quickly, and I think it burns fine. I have a good bit of tulip in my wood pile and when I load the stove with it it's not like it doesn't make heat.

I wouldnt want a lot of it! Couple cords could help you out!

Oak takes a couple full years after splitting to dry well. Poplar takes no time at all, so I'd scoop it when I could. Plus- most people go through 3+ cord of wood in a season burning 24/7- get it while you can.

10 minutes away? Sure! I use woods like pine and poplar on the weekends when I'm home to feed the furnace often. That leaves the harder woods for overnights and during the week when I'm at work.

I'd get some. You'll regret it if you don't.

I'd take it. Whether it is Tulip Poplar (Yellow Poplar, Tulip tree), or aspen, it will make nice firewood either way. By the way, does the ground EVER freeze in MD?

Ok, i'll go get some GEEZ I scrounged two friends up to help. MY trailer is swamped in in the back yard.. So I will have to do this with my tahoe and my friends pickup truck.


Thanks to all for the quick responses.


Scott

Yes, it does freeze usually not until like Mid to late December though.

The weather here has been warm lately. I have decided to try to only go get wood 1 day a week. So when I saw warm weather coming, I initially decided to go get a bunch of Aspen blow down. But, if you have limited time to go scrounge, why piss that time away on junk? True, you might 'save' some of your good wood. But how ya gonna feel if you and/or equipment get hurt getting Aspen?!? Besides, burning Aspen is so high maintenance.

Drive past the Aspen and get the Oak ;-)

Holy cow there was tons of wood I got what I could fit in a pickup and my tahoe. It was in rounds that were up to 36" in diameter. There was a guy there with a splitter that split a bunch of the rounds in half so we could move them easier. They were all cut very neatly between like 10" and 16" lengths. I am going to go get more tomorrow.... I don't think I have to worry about the guy running out of wood, but if he does oh well. I got a good bit of wood.

Scott

Yes, but it will work for firepits and burning when i don't need much heat. And it was FREE!! So why not go get more, turns out, I found a short cut and made it there in 4 min's from work! So a perfect lunch snag!

Why does Poplar get such a bad rap? When I say Poplar I mean Tulip Poplar. I believe its about 18 MBTUs. Yes that isnt 24 MBTUs like Ash and Red Oak, but sure itsnt bad in my book! Its equivalent to Silver Maple. I think I am getting a rather large load of it myself. Should be great in the shoulder season months. Especially if it is free.

Just make sure you split and stack it right away, that stuff gets rotten so fast, the last thing you want to do is go through all that trouble of bringing it home only to leave it lying around on the ground and find out it's all turned into compost material before you had a chance to burn any.
Even in nice stacks Ive seen the stuff rot if they are exposed to the weather for very long.

Yes that would be a perfect lunch snag, but I think my wife would rather I bring home the wood ;-)

How should I store it? I know off the ground, but can I keep it in the round for a while if it's under cover and not on the ground?

and how long does poplar usually need to season?

it'll be fine if you keep it off the ground. it will season in a year when split. covering the top won't hurt it, but don't tarp it or anything. what is the bark like at this point? I ask because it's been my experience that the rounds all pile up with the bark soaking up a majority of the moisture starts the stuff to rotting a little faster. No matter how you do it, though, if you get the stuff stacked in the rounds and intend to burn it within the next 5 years, I think you'll be ok, even if you do lose a little to the beginnings of rot. Don't leave it laying on the ground, though. I've seen a poplar that was 10" through lay on the timber floor and in three years you could step right through the mushy wood. I can only imagine how much faster it would be if it took moisture from the sides AND a couple of cut ends on a round...

Split and off the ground it will be fine. If you can get all the bark off, do that. With the poplar I have ad (and I burn is every year) the bark traps moisture more so than other woods...it gets wet and slimy. If the bark is off....it can sit for a couple years.

I'm with you.

I'm burning Tulip Poplar the past couple weeks and it's not bad at all. The stuff I have is pretty punky too...was on the ground for a long time before c/s/s.

I can get an overnight burn pretty easily out of it. Probably not so in the colder months but it's great for right now.

Scott, I recall one winter many, many moons ago when I heated 100% with popple (not tulip). We were allowed to go into a woods and cut all we wanted for free.....but it had to be dead or we could not take it. We had a big stove but still have to get up during the cold nights to put more wood in. We burned a lot more (probably the most we ever burned in one winter) but by golly we stayed warm and it didn't cost a whole lot. I took a tractor and hay wagon and loaded it with as much as we could and then buzzed it when we got home. Ah, those days are gone now though! But we were very thankful at the time as we had no wood going into that winter and the previous winter had to buy all of our wood because I was injured. Dang. Sometimes I still wonder how we did it, but we did it nonetheless.

Go get it.

I'm glad you went and got some. Free is free. The longer I am at this scrounging for wood thing, the more I realize wood is like beer.

Some brands are better than others, but it all accomplishes the same thing!

I have a situation where I can choose between oak, maple, poplar, and pine. I have plenty of oak for the next 4 years, so I may get the pine and poplar first, then go for the better stuff.
Some of it is on the ground, and will start rotting if I don't get to it first. It will allow me to keep the hardwoods for the deep winter cold.
So, to answer the question, yes, I would/will go get free poplar. This is only about 2.5 miles away, at my sister-in-laws place.

The Poplar you guys get must be different from what grows out here. If the wood was
cut,split,seasoned,delivered,and stacked for me for free I still wouldn't want it! I have seen that
stuff split and seasoning for 3 years and still throws a ton of smoke and gives no heat. I wouldn't
even burn it in a fire pit. We tried, and had to constantly throw more wood(weeds) on the fire and
constantly turn what was in the fire to try and keep some decent flame burning to keep the smoke down.
Our poplar, at it's absolute best is still junk.